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Why Should We Care About the Anglican Communion?
Central Vermont Interfaith Action
United Thank Offering Ingathering
Financial Update, Through April 30,2005
Sermon, Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A
Recognition & Youth Sunday
Join us for Recognition and Youth Sunday,
June 5, 2005
Celebrate our church school students and ministry of our teachers.
Sing with joy and Celebrate the Junior Choir
The homily, lessons and prayers will be led by the Youth of
the Parish.
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Why Should We Care About the Anglican Communion?
By the Rev. Dr. Ian Douglas, Professor of Anglican Studies
These are heady times for the Anglican Communion. It seems
as if barely a week goes by without some international body,
or some political interest group, within the Anglican Communion
trying to assert who is currently in, or out, of this odd
worldwide family of churches. Such internecine family squabbles
make for great media headlines that are all too quick to
scream: “See how the Christians love one another.”
The most recent Communiqué from
the Primates Meeting in Newry, Ireland in February 2005 offers
yet another opportunity for the pundits to point out how the
sky is falling in the Anglican Communion. The primates suggestion
that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada “voluntarily
withdraw” our members from the next meeting of the
Anglican Consultative Council has been misrepresented as
throwing these two North American churches out of the Anglican
Communion. Enflamed by such rhetoric, some in the Episcopal
Church and the Anglican Church of Canada have asked, “Why
should we care about the Anglican Communion anyway?”
I believe that there are at least two good reasons why we
in the Episcopal Church should care about the Anglican Communion
and should do everything possible to stay in the Anglican
family, while at the same time remaining true to who we are
as American Anglicans. One reason is ecclesiological; the
other is missiological [mission of the church].
First, the ecclesiological
argument: Max Warren, the great General Secretary of the English
Church Missionary Society in the mid-twentieth century, is
credited with saying: “It
takes the whole world to know the whole gospel.” Warren’s
statement underscores the belief that the Gospel contains
universal truth that is meant for, and accessible to, every
person and every culture. At the same time, Warren’s
words emphasize that any one cultural expression or contextual
embodiment of Christianity is limited in its understanding
and experience of the Gospel. No individual, no local eucharistic
community, no national ecclesial body, not even any one province
of the Anglican Communion, can pretend that they alone, that
we alone, know and reveal all that God has done in Jesus
Christ.
So to know the whole Gospel we need the whole world, in all
of our differences, in all of our peculiarities, in all of
our gifts, and all of our mistakes. The Anglican Communion,
that family of 38 national or regional churches in 164 countries with
75 million members, all of whom trace some part of our history
to the See of St. Augustine of Canterbury, offers an incredible
means by which the catholicity of the whole Gospel in the
whole world can be lived out. To turn our backs on the Anglican
Communion is to turn our backs on one possible way by which
we can live into the fullness and wholeness of the Gospel.
The Anglican Communion, in all of our differences and plural
contextual realities, and not in some hegemonic normative
presupposition of a “world church,” can reflect
the whole Gospel in the whole world. But to do so, the Anglican
Communion needs the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church
of Canada; and we need the Anglican Communion.
Second is the missiological
rationale for caring about the Anglican Communion. The mission
of God is to restore all people, all people, to unity with
God and each other in Christ. The mission of God, the missio
Dei, is one of justice, compassion, and reconciliation that
seeks right relation with and between all people and all creation.
In order to be faithful to the mission of God, we need to
be in relationship with others, near and far, those similar
to us and those very different from us, who share this vision
of God’s reign.
When we Anglicans come together in
relationships across difference to serve and advance the mission
of God, the Anglican Communion can do great things. The Decade
of Evangelism resulted in the sharing of the Good News in
Jesus Christ in new and exciting ways around the world. Inter-Anglican
efforts and cooperation resulted in the passage of significant
debt-relief legislation for the poorest countries of the world
during President Clinton’s
administration. And today the Anglican Communion is widely
acknowledged by governments and Non-Governmental Organizations
alike as the single best global network to combat the hiv/aids
pandemic through our institutions that provide palliative
care, medical delivery, and preventative education. Evil
being what it is, there is nothing the devil wants more than
for the Anglican Communion to come apart and thus not fulfill
its possibilities to serve and advance God’s mission
of justice, compassion, and reconciliation in the world.
So why should we care
about the
Anglican Communion? We should not care about the Anglican
Communion as some precious institution of English tradition,
good taste, and right order. No, we should care about the
Anglican Communion because it offers one way by which we
in the Episcopal Church can begin to glimpse the whole Gospel
in the whole world while calling us more deeply into faithfulness
and service to the mission of God.
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Central Vermont Interfaith Action
We have had two meetings exploring the formation of an interfaith
organization to be a voice for social justice action in Central
Vermont. Nine congregations have been represented by 28 people
attending at least one of the meetings from Montpelier, Barre,
Northfield and St Johnsbury. The group has been educated about
the organizing model that is founded on a broad listening campaign
within the participating congregations, to glean the issues
about which the individuals in the community are passionate.
The process requires a commitment by the congregation to speak
to each other and listen to each other in one on one conversations
that are earnest, honest, and respectful. At the congregational
level, those conversations are reviewed to raise up the issues
that were voiced most frequently. The interfaith group then
gathers those issues from the congregations and researches
effective actions that can be taken on the issues. If 100 people
in each of nine or ten congregations have been listened to,
then close to 1000 people will have a voice and be likely to
support action.
This process has been taking
place in Burlington, and on Sunday, June 5 at 6:45pm at St Joseph’s
Co-Cathedral at 85 Elm- wood Ave in Burlington (a block north
of the post office on Pearl St), they will be unveiling their
issues and actions in a large media event with representatives
of government present. We are all encouraged to attend. The
more people present, the more powerful is the voice.
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United Thank Offering Ingathering
Our annual ingathering for the uto will be Sunday June 5. Ideally,
you have had a uto box at home collecting loose coins as you
take a moment to give thanks for the blessings in your life.
This is the Sunday when all of those boxes are brought forward
and we give thanks in community for all of those blessings.
The United Thank Offering is
distributed in the form of grants to congregations in the United
States and throughout the Anglican Communion for specific projects
that enhance the congregation’s
ministry especially to the community. Christ Church has received
two grants in recent memory. One helped establish the Open
Door Arts program.
If you have not had a box, but
would like to look back on the year in an act of thanksgiving,
you may contribute with a cash envelope marked with your name
and uto offering, or a check made out to Christ Church with
uto on the memo line.
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Financial Update, Through April 30,2005
Total Gift Income is $54,661.75 (Budgeted ytd is $53,333.33.
Previous ytd was $42,504.96)
Total gift income includes pledge
payments and General Fund giving.
Total General Fund Income
is $79,582.30. (Budget ytd is $81,750. Previous ytd was $52,514.45)
Total General Fund income includes
giving plus investment interest, sale of investments to pay Diocesan
Assessment, fund-raising and rent. As you can see, we are doing
very well with income. We are way ahead of last year and we are
very close to budget. The congregation has been wonderfully generous.
The months of June through August are historically very low in
gift income. Please try to continue regular giving through the
summer months because the paychecks and bills continue to need
payment.
The expense side is not
as rosy. We had a 44% increase in our property/liability insurance
that was unanticipated. Our fuel costs have been fairly even
with last year, but are concentrated in the first third of the
year, so put us over budget. Total General Fund Expense is $75,530.64,
and we owe $12,680 (an insurance bill and this year’s Diocesan
Assessment). We have $2500 in the bank. Total Owed And Spent
is $88,210.64. (Budget ytd $81,104.61) All of our over budget
expense is in properties expenses - insurance, fuel, repairs.
At this point, we feel we can meet
our budget expectations for income. Some people have paid their
entire pledge for the year. We are still counting on others who
are behind to meet their pledges, and hope to continue to see
such generous giving. At year’s
end, we will be at least $4000 over budget to meet the increased
insurance payments. We look forward to a wonderful summer of rummage
sales, barbeque sales and having the furnace off.
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Sermon, Fifth Sunday of Easter
“I am the way, the truth and the life.”
In the Name and Praise of God,
Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.
Good morning.
Jesus said: “I
am the way, the truth and the life.” Jesus spoke these words
the night of the Last Supper. Jesus had said to his disciples,
his friends, that he must go and: “I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also
should love one another.”
Peter
said:
“Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered, ‘Where I am going, you
cannot follow me now; but you will follow me afterward.’
Peter said to him, ‘Lord why can I not follow you now? I will lay
down my life for you.’
Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly,
I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three
times.’”
That is where we pick up today’s gospel,
the first six verses of which constitute one of the readings that
may be used in a service for burial in the Book
of Common Prayer.
This man Jesus, raised as a carpenter,
who knew he was about to die, said:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it
were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place
for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again
and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may
be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we
do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said
to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me.’”
Much is said about the resurrection
and the beyond-our-knowing gift of eternal life. But let’s consider
the words, “I am the way,
and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me.” What does that mean for people of other faiths: Muslims? Jews?
Hindus? Or Quakers? Or for people who don’t identify with any religion?
Or those who are so put off by some of the awful things done supposedly
in the name or cause of Christianity or God, be it the Inquisition,
discrimination or suicide-bombers, that they feel that Christianity
or other religion is no place to go? Or for those people who are
doubtful of whether there is a God at all? There have been powerful
people who have proclaimed down through the centuries, and who believe
today, that absent a proper conversion before the heart stops beating,
that if they such other persons see the door to God’s house, it will
be blocked to them, like a diner for whites only before the civil
rights movement in this country. People who hold this view have pointed
to words such as these of Christ as proof that they are on the only
path that counts, and that people on all other paths at the time
of death are excluded by God. Similar self-righteous views may be
found among fundamentalists of various religions, who think that
only their train goes to heaven. I think that view belongs in the
scrap-heap, along with the positions that Jews are the murderers
of Christ, no blacks in the front of the bus or on a church vestry,
and Galileo’s ex-communication for stating that the earth is not
the center of the universe. We are all created in the image of God,
we are born where we are born, and according to our Baptismal Covenant,
we are to respect the dignity of every human being.
Jesus saw something like view in his
time on earth, they were called the Pharisees. The Pharisees, who
confused their rules with God, as if their rules were God. Hypocrites,
who judged others harshly, but somehow missed their own imperfections.
People who agitated and conspired to have Jesus put to death, mostly
because his truth undermined their power. Why did Jesus tell the parable
of the Good Samaritan if only the In-Group counted? How could Jesus,
who said that the two great commandments are to love God and to love
your neighbor as yourself, exclude vast groups of people? How could
this man named Jesus, born of the Jewish girl named Mary, have possibly
done what he did, suffered what he suffered, gave as he gave , loved
as he loved, and said on the Cross, “Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do,” if he came to save only those who are given a certain
key? Would this God of love who knows when the sparrow falls not
hear the cry of grief from a Muslim father or a mother in Iraq, from
a homeless child in Indonesia following a Tsunami, and bar the door?
I am not saying that all beliefs are
true and none of it makes a difference. I believe that Jesus Christ
is, as he said, the way, the truth and the life. But all any of us
can do is to proceed from where we are. And for all that we do not
understand, all I’ve
seen convinces me that Jesus’ way is to seek, to love, to include,
not to exclude.
In matters of the spirit, we need to
listen and look and learn in the spaces of our heart and mind and in
the continuing weaving of the fabric of our lives. We can pray in the
words of the Hebrew Psalm 119, “Teach me discernment and knowledge.” At
the same time each of us should have the humility to recognize that
God is not contained or limited by our logic or our imagination or
by our religion. The God that made the order and wonder in the Universe
could have hard-wired each of us to be a certain brand of Christian,
as so many robots, but God gave us free will and peoples of various
traditions all over the earth. Yes, we should try to discern and
to grow, but we are not meant at this time in faith to understand
everything. I sometimes take comfort in the words of one of the shortest
Psalms, Psalm 131:
O Lord, I am not proud; I have no haughty looks. I do not occupy myself with great matters, Or with things that are too hard for me. But I still my soul and make it quiet, Like a child upon its mother’s breast; My soul is quieted within me.
Today’s Gospel reading has another sentence that is striking. Jesus
said: “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I
do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going
to the Father.” How could that be, that a believer in Jesus could
do greater works than Jesus? He returned the dead to living. He restored
sight to the blind, walking to cripples, and ultimately gave his
own life that others may have life. It sounds almost blasphemous,
but Jesus said that others who believe may do greater works than
these.” But, you know, I haven’t seen any evidence that Christ was
motivated by competition. He didn’t do what he did to get the prize
for Best-Works-Ever. God gave us free will, and that’s choices.
There are two people who have come
to my mind lately who made choices that give magnificent light.
One is Marla Ruzicka, the 28-year old woman from California who
founded, seemingly out of nothing, a humanitarian organization
called Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC). She
brought and caused comfort and aid to be delivered to innocent
victims in Afghanistan and Iraq. She believed that the phrase “collateral
damage” masked the human toll, that their numbers, their names
and their lives should be known, and they should be aided. She
obtained millions of dollars of U.S. aid for victims working
with the office of Senator Leahy. On April 16, 2005, she was
on her way to visit an Iraqi child injured by a bomb; she was
killed with her Iraqi driver and translator by a suicide bomber
intent on a nearby convoy. Her funeral was yesterday at St. Mary’s
Catholic Church in Lakeport, California. Marla had been asked
by a San Francisco Chronicle reporter if she would consider doing
work that was safer. Marla answered: “To
have a job where you can make things better for people? That’s
a blessing. Why would I do anything else?”
The other person is Paul Rusesabagina,
the manager of the hotel in the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” The movie
portrays, amidst the genocidal conflict in Rwanda in 1994, the
true story of the saving of many refugees by the courage of this
man of faith. My wife Janet and I were in Burlington a few weeks
ago and we decided to see a matinee; this movie was at the Roxy.
I didn’t
want to have an image planted in my brain of a machete doing what
was done, so I asked the woman at the ticket counter whether it
showed that. She said no, and she said that “that every person
on earth should see it.” We saw it,
and I agree.
Christ gave us a model, and the
comfort and strength, to know that he has trod this way; and who,
rather than being aloof from the struggle, became one of us, experienced
not only the good, but also rejection, cruelty, misunderstanding
and an awful death he accepted to bring us new life. And what Marla
and Paul did, by their free will, humbles us all.
We have choices
too, including about commitment and care to those we know. Some
years ago I was running along the Winooski River and I saw a
duck floating along with the swift current but he was turned
around, so that he was facing backwards. I stopped to watch,
I never had seen such a thing, why wasn’t he facing forward while
he floated along? I looked in the direction he was looking and
saw a second duck who made better time by swimming forward – when
the second duck caught up, the first duck turned around and then
they traveled along together. I’m thankful
for the grace of what I saw that day in part of God’s kingdom.
It illustrates and illuminates a choice that we have with those
we know in this river of life.
And we have choices about those
we may not know now, but who are also part of the Baptismal covenant
of respecting the dignity of every human being. One possible
choice is to come to the second meeting here next Sunday at 2:00
p.m. of the Central Vermont Interfaith Action, a social action
ministry. The Lord is my shepherd. And like the stranger, the
Rabbi David told us about last Sunday, who reached out to David
following the death of David’s
father, we are shepherds to one another. Humility opens eyes,
pride closes eyes. Let us keep our eyes open to the way, the
truth and the life, and the gift of joy in all of God’s works.” Amen.
Stephen Reynes©
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